Category Archives: Health

Diabetes is an ancient disease that is taking a growing toll on the modern world. In 1980, 108 million adults were living with diabetes. By 2014, that number had risen to 422 million – 8.5 per cent of adults — reflecting a global increase in risk factors such as being overweight or obese. Even though we have the tools to prevent and treat it, diabetes now causes some 1.5 million deaths a year. High blood glucose causes an additional 2.2 million deaths.

This year, the World Health Organization has issued its first Global Report on Diabetes, outlining the scale of the problem and suggesting ways to reverse current trends. The burden of diabetes is not equally shared, within or between countries. People in low- and middle-income countries are disproportionately affected, but wherever we find poverty we also find disease and premature deaths.

Diabetes affects countries’ health systems and economies, through increased medical costs and lost wages. In 2011, world leaders agreed that non-communicable diseases, including diabetes, represent a major challenge to achieving sustainable development. Last year, Governments adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, which include the target of reducing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases by one-third.

We can limit the spread and impact of diabetes by promoting and adopting healthier lifestyles, especially among young people. This includes eating better and being physically active. We must also improve diabetes diagnosis and access to essential medicines such as insulin. Governments, health-care providers, people with diabetes, civil society, food producers and manufacturers and suppliers of medicines and technology must all contribute to changing the status quo.

On this World Health Day, let us all commit to working together to halt the rise in diabetes and improve the lives of those living with this dangerous but preventable and treatable disease.

This year’s World Water Day focuses on the links between water and jobs. Almost half of all workers – 1.5 billion people – work in water-related sectors, and nearly all jobs depend on the availability of freshwater.

Despite its paramount importance, water as a sector generally does not receive the attention it deserves. Water is central to human survival, the environment and the economy.

All workers can be harmed by poor water and sanitation. Of 2 million work-related deaths every year, nearly one-in-five are caused by poor quality drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.

World AIDS Day this year comes at a critical juncture, when the world has decided on 17 sustainable development goals as global priorities for the next 15 years. Access to HIV services cuts across a number of these goals with the aim to achieve an AIDS free generation by 2030. The United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting (HLM) is the most significant milestone on our journey towards fast-tracking the response to end AIDS.

This little girl’s arm is being measured in central Niger and if she is malnourished, she will be directed to the nearest health centre for treatment. Photo: WFP/Chris Terry, supported by the EU

27 September 2015 – Underscoring the urgent need to transform how essential health care is delivered in low- and middle-income countries, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank Group and the UN World Health Organization (WHO) have launched a new partnership to support countries in improving the performance of primary health care.

The new partnership, the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (PHCPI) was launched yesterday in New York on the margins of the three-day UN Sustainable Development Summit at an event co-hosted with the governments of Germany, Ghana, and Norway.